Preview: One last chance to keep the dream alive

The Republic of Ireland are entering the home straight, with a cluster of hopefuls jostling for position. Fallers, sadly, are inevitable.

Vera Pauw has spent the last ten days preparing her extended panel for tonight's friendly against Zambia [live on RTÉ2, 7.30pm], with everything leading towards 29 June, the day the manager unveils her final 23-player squad for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

It means that Zambia come to town as a prop is a high-stakes audition. The Africans have some great attacking talent, not least Barbra Banda, the prolific goalscorer who scored back-to-back hat-tricks at the Tokyo Games.

They made the semi-finals of the 2022 African Cup of Nations and possess similiar qualities to Nigeria, who are housed in Ireland's tough World Cup group.

But as far as a lot of the Irish players are concerned, the focus will be on themselves. There's a few of them in the last-chance saloon and they will be desperate to shoot the lights out.

"Of course there is the core that we know," said Pauw, who intends to make plenty of half-time changes. "But then [there are] the ones that we really, really want to find out and give the players the chance."

"I'll fight for my place until the last day, of course, but I need to remember the bigger picture."

Like Leanne Kiernan. The Liverpool striker missed most of the season with an ankle injury but she's fresh and hungry to prove she's worth a place on the plane.

"We did not bring Leanne in because of the 20 minutes [she played for Liverpool at the end of the campaign]," Pauw said.

"We brought her in to give her the time to grow.

"We will see where she is. She is available, she is fit but how fit we will see. Match [fitness] is something else than what you show in training.